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Category Archives: Life

Thank you everyone for playing along with “I verbed a noun because random phrase.” Your answers made me smile.

Today several colleagues, Treva, and I took advantage of McDonald’s free Southwestern Style chicken sandwich deal for lunch. The McDonalds near work is not well known for swift execution of the “fast” part of fast food, but as Momtobe accurately pointed out, “they are always polite.”

As we were walking over Momtobe, leaving the restaurant and heading toward the bank, stopped us and asked if we had cash since the debit card machines weren’t working. After assuring her we were covered and a moment of me trying to figure out why they let it go three days without fixing it (I don’t really eat there all the time) we headed in.

After placing our orders for the McChikFilet I had what might be described as a “Here’s Your Sign” moment, but I still don’t know which one of us gets the sign. The clerk handed me a stack of bills and we had the following conversation:

Last night I was hanging out with some of the crew online and playing a new MORPG Slipgate Legacy. It also happens that I was reading an article on Insteon, searching for a replacement to the crappy windows clipboard that could hold more than one thing at a time, keeping an eye on Twitter, listening to the scanner, and for some background noise I turned on The DaVinci Code since I had never seen it and wanted to compare it to the book (the ridiculousness of which is the subject matter for some other post).

During the course of our voice chat, I mentioned to my friends that if a movie couldn’t hold my interest while I was engaged in three other activities it just wasn’t worth my time. They all proceeded to inform me that I had ADD. I maintain that I don’t have ADD, I just multi task. A lot. Perhaps to the point of loonacy, but still, it remains multi-tasking.

It did, however, bring to mind a memory from childhood which potentially prooves their point.

Six Thirty in the morning, I’m in the middle of the sweetest dream… [Fine, I’ll stop ripping off Yankee Grey now, but the first part of that was true] Mom wakes me up to give me some eyedrop or another. It so happens I have the scanner, the 2M ham radio, one radio tuned to channel 12 across the room, and the one next to the bed on the morning newscast from channel 6.

She asked how in the world I could keep track of it all, and I smarted off by telling her exactly what was happening on each radio from the traffic stop PD was running, to the morning commute chatter on the local repeater, to whatever news story was going on each TV station. See developing my multitasking skills early. 🙂

It is probably time the truth of one aspect of that morning came out though. The only reason the channel 12 radio wasn’t off was because I was too lazy to get up and turn it off. So, I suppose I was cultivating my procrastination habbit too. Sorry Mom.

Last night I finally renewed the CPR certification I let lapse six years ago. I didn’t intentionally let it lapse, at the time I was planning on taking a First Responder calss through the Winona, MN fire department, but lapse it did. Our Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service group had requested to get certified and one of the FF/EMTs who works for Emergency Management did the training. He modified the training slightly and got an 8 hour class done in two. That’s what I’m talking about.

I’m glad I got the chance to test the skills. I’ve kept up with the new AHA guidelines, but never knew for sure if I was doing everything right.

Recently I have been discussing the idea of CPR certification and obtaining at least one Automated External Defibrillator (AED) with one of my bosses. I spoke with him today and it looks like we can get Lifepak 500s for around $2,000 each. I found an AED Grant Program which will partially fund the units we would like. Now I need to fill out the grant app, find a physician to act as Medical Oversight, draft an EMS Activation Protocol, get the powers that be to approve all of this, plus I would like to form a committee to draft some general emergency preparedness procedures for administrative approval.

Our building covers an entire city block and my thinking is taht we need to have at least 2 units. We have an additional outbuilding that is not directly connected with the main building and should probably have one there too. In thinking about it tonight I would optimally like to have one unit per floor on each side of teh building where we usually have people. That makes the total number of desired units about six. I’ll have to see if this is feasable or not. Maybe I want too many AEDs. I’m not sure what the proper balance is between cost and time/distance.

If anyone has ever done something like this, has thoughts, or knows the EMS medical director for the city of Baltimore leave a message in the comments. I could use some guidance.

From now on when I hear the words, “assembly required” I am sticking my thumbs in my ears, squeezing my eyes shut, and singing something at least as annoying as Hit Me Baby One More Time at the top of my sanity loving lungs. Because, honestly, it would be much less painful than trying to assemble furnature.

You know that old attage those who don’t learn from their mistakes blah blah blah I’ve quit listening where’s the nearest place to get a smoothy? Well, I guess I should have paid more attention. I’ve ranted about my ineptitude putting the excersize bike, which still to this day remains used a grand total of twice, together on the “Some Assembly Required” episode of the podcast. Then there is the unforgetable time our marriage almost ended, less than a month after it began, when Treva and I tried to assemble two end tables. (I thought I blogged about it, but as usual my brain thinks I did a task my fingers were to lazy to complete.) Tonight, I once again dove headfirst into the shallow end of the I’m a man I can assemble anything pool.

A month or two ago (fine it was really December. shut up.) we bought a cabinet from Ikea. It was one of those small, 5 drawer bathroom things. Came in a box unassembled and unstained. We had been having horiffic luck that day finding things for our new apartment and I was determined to salvage the trip. I told Treva that I would get the cabinet, stain it, put it together, and life would be all roses and smiles from then on. I don’t know why, but for some reason that woman trusts me. Saint.

Fast forward to March. The cabinet, the stain, and the brushes lie under the bed mocking me. I had been waiting for the “perfect weekend” to begin this project. Treva was going to visit her family and I figured what better time to line the kitchen floor with plastic, open the windows, stain that beast like there’s no tomorrow, and hope I don’t hit my head too hard when I pass out from the fumes.

After getting the advice to use a rag instead of a brush because you can feel the stain from someone smarter than I am, I slap in some season 1 West Wing (nerd) and start staining. I quickly discover a few things.

1. Our kitchen is too small and once I lie these pieces on the floor I will be unable to reach the fridge to obtain more Cherry Coke. Furthermore, later, once the first coat has dried I will have no idea which pieces have had the second coat applied. I of course come to this realization about 90 percent through my first coat.

2. This stuff feels gross.

3. the fumes aren’t nearly bad enough to give me a high or cause unconsciousness, but my hands will smell for the next milleneum or three.

4. I hate staining stuff. Why can’t this involve a chainsaw? I’m good with destruction.

Once the first coat is done I scrub my hands in an attempt to rid them of their newly acquired shade of white, grab my cell and call Treva.

Me: I quit. If I ship this to your Mom will she bust out her incredible Amish woodworking skills and save me from myself? … Stop laughing. I’m sorry. I will never promise I can ever do something like this again. Oh, and our kitchen is too small. I want my mommy.

Treva: You’re a dork. Let me ask.

Me: I will shower you with children if you fix this for me. (hahaha, yeah right. I would never say such a thing. Children scare me pantsless remember?)

Several hours later I toss the dry pieces of particle board in the box, shove it under the bed, and forget about it until the beginning of April. Treva finally smacks me upside the head and reminds me to send the thing to her Mom. I’m pretty sure the woman at UPS was laughing at me when I explained what I was doing. Actually, I know she was.

We got it back tonight and I decided I had had enough of being haunted by this mean little hunk of wood. I was going to put it together. And, while I was at it, entertain the Twitter community with my antics.

21:48: Finally putting the ikea cabinet together. Where did i put the hardware?

When we sent the cabinet I figured I’d hang onto the hardware. I suppose, in retrospect, I should have just had her assemble the thing post staining, but I figured it would be easier to ship back in it’s multiple piece state. I left the bag of hardware tucked in a secret spot behind the leg of the headboard because I didn’t want to lose it and that’s where it was and if I moved it I would never find it again. Stop glaring at me honey, I hardly ever do that.

22:15: Would text instructions be too much to ask? There pictures aren’t doing it.

Now to be fair, I realize that for your average bear a picture is more helpful than text, but not for me. See, it all looks like a bunch of lines and things that might be screws or maybe a smudge, or possibly a doughnut. I want something that says “take the piece of wood with the slot, slide the thin flat board into the groove” you get the idea. Is that impossible?

22:45: I quit! Nothing that says assembly required is ever allowed in this house again.

After Treva and I figured out how to put the thing together I started nailing it in place. Unfortunately every time I got close to getting the nails in all the way the boards would slip and I would have to pull it and start over.

I gave up. I finally had enough and decided the cabinet and I needed to take a break from each other. Once my thumbs have healed, and my anger has subsided we might meet again… in a dark alley while I brandish a lead pipe and pound the bologna out of it. 🙂

Oh yes. Indeed. I totally fire myself as a contributor to this blog since I cannot seem to update with any regularity.

So, here’s the brief rundown of what’s been happening.

We’re still settling into our new apartment and trying to make it feel like home. We need to put up all the decorative junk Treva has managed to auire over the years 😉 so if anyone wants to come be an interior decorator we’ll put you up on our futon for free.

Work is going great. I get paid to play with all kinds of fun stuff and help people with technology related issues.

Treva is still looking for work and trying to settle in. It’s been kind of an ajustment moving from Richmond to here, but in time it will all smooth out.

We really do need to find a church. Not having a church family is something we miss.

I’ll make an effort to write more soon. We’re working on a podcast too…. soon.

That’s right. After one day of nothing but disappointment and the nagging fear that we would not be able to find an apartment that met our criteria (wheelchair accessible, affordable, good location, and possessing it’s own washer/drier or hookups), but we did find it.

It looks like it will have enough space for most of our stuff. The kitchen is big enough for Treva to get in and even turn around. There are two bathrooms and a walk-in closet.

This was an answer to prayer. I don’t know what I would have done if she had gone back to Indiana and we hadn’t found somewhere to live. It would’ve been hard for me to figure out if it was accessible or not.

I’m half asleep, but I wanted people to know that we found somewhere to live and the prayers were much appreciated.

It has been so long since I’ve written a substantive post, I’m not sure I remember how to do it right anymore. Life is spinning like a whirlwind and and I want to let everyone know what’s going on. So I’ll muttle through the intricacies of language, sentence structure, and punctuation to keep my readers enthralled. 🙂

We have been running around like crazy the past couple weeks getting ready for our move. The Friday before Thanksgiving Treva’s mother and sister came down to deliver some furnature and help pack. We had a chest of drawers and a headboard made to match the dresser and lamp stand turned table that we already had. The craftsman who made them consulted the Amish guy who made the first set. They match nearly perfectly and we think that in a couple years, when the wood fades somewhat, you won’t be able to tell the difference.

We spent that weekend in Goshen with Treva’s family and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with them.

Tuesday we headed to Wisconsin. We had planned on spending the day with friends at the Museum of Science and Industry, but unfortunately they were all sick and had to cancel. We grabbed an earlier train and had the chance to spend more time with my Uncle Darren who would only be in town until the following day.

We were in Wisconsin until Sunday when my Dad and Grandpa drove us back to Richmond. We had a great time and it was good to spent time with everyone since we won’t be able to come home for Christmas this year.

Our friends took us out to dinner Monday which was really nice. We got to spend some more time with them before leaving and they, of course, got to pick on me some more before they had to do it over e-mail. 🙂

Wednesday was my last day of work in Richmond. It was a day of mixed emotions. Excitement over the upcoming adventure, trepedation over the upcoming adventure, and the sadness that comes with knowing you are leaving good friends.

Because of the giant amount of work I still needed to complete before leaving I decided to go in early. Treva and I arrived at the office at 6:30 to discover the phones didn’t work, we couldn’t get to the internet, and we couldn’t access internal web applications either. Muttering a harty, “I love the smell of server crashes in the morning,” I dove into the server room. When all was said and done I had to reboot both servers (a process that takes about 10-15 minutes per box) and reset the Internet gateway. After discovering everything appeared to be functioning again I got about 20 minutes of work in before I had to go get my hair cut.

On the way back from my appointment I called in to talk to someone and discovered that calls were not being forwarded to voicemail if the phone wasn’t being answered. Fine, yet another box to reset when I get back.

After that was all fixed I finally got around to what I was actually supposed to be doing that day and hammered out the end of year grant report for the state. Well, I got done as much as I could anyway. The report form we used last year was different than the one for this year and I had to send some of it to my boss for him to figure out. I never had any training in this report or even a general overview of what the “workplan” really is and where ours even was.

At the end of the day I ended up deleting myself from all network systems. E-mail, user account, and the StatusView software. It was a little weird to be removing myself from the system, but it did need to be done. Finishing the day by having my picture taken several dozen times I headed home with Treva to cram in as much last minute packing as possible.

After a 45 minute nap, some last minute purging of my office space, packing my suitcases to the point of weighing just under 50 pounds each, reprogramming my scanner, talking with our friends on Ventrilo, scouting the Internet again for more possible housing choices, moving Treva’s computer, putting laundry away, and possibly eating a turkey sandwich somewhere along the way I finally got to bed around 4:30.

“BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEP!” says my alarm at 6:15.

“I hate you.” says I.

“BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEP!” says the alarm with obvious delight.

“If you weren’t on the other side of the room already you sure would be now,” I grumble. Stumbling out of I bed I beat the alarm int o silence. Turning the radio on I crawl back into bed for another 15 minutes. When I wake up again Treva is in the shower and I am absolutely shaking. My teeth were chattering and my limbs were trembling. Do I ever wish I was kidding about this too. It was the weirdest feeling. I don’t know if it was nerves, if I was actually cold, or a combination of both. Maybe my body was just mad at me for granting it so little sleep.

Our ride arrived at 7 and we headed to the airport. I think we both pretty much slept the entire way to the airport. I know I slept through the first part of the flight to Baltimore too.

After getting settled in at our temporary accomodations at the National Center for the Blind I talked with my new boss to learn where I need to be and what I need to do Monday morning. We had an enjoyable dinner with our friends Mark and Melissa and headed back to the Center to relax.

Today is day one of The Great Housing Hunt. We have 4 apartments to look at. I found a few more condos on Craig’s List that I think we’ll check out tomorrow. I have to make arrangements to look at them. Hopefully we’ll find something in our price range that is accessible and not too bad of a commute to the office.

I want to heed the advice that was given to me by someone from my Church before I left for the school for th Blind in 8th grade. He told me to journal my thoughts every day so I would remember the adventures in my life. (Yes, I know this was 10 years ago. let’s not dwell on the fact that I’m coming late to the party, but embrace the fact that I showed up at all.) So, I’m going to try and write something in this blog every day. Hopefully the fact that life is going on won’t stop me. I may not make it every day, but I’m going to try. These book-length posts are too hard on my fingers. 🙂

Today I got the chance to actually drive a car. One of our coworkers let Treva drive when she turned 25 and she told me she would let me do the same thing. We went to the parking lot of the Municipal Pool and I got to see what it’s like to drive.

I learned that it is not easy. I expected the car to start slowing down when I let off the gas. Yeah, not so much for a while. Also, hitting the breaks too hard is not a smart idea. I left a little rubber behind when I did it the first time.

Check out the video footage. I wish I had thought to put an audio recorder in the car and splice that onto the vid, but instead you get the color commentary of my coworkers. Enjoy.

That’s right. Today I celebrate my twenty-fifth anniversary of life on Earth. I don’t know why, but other than the presents, Treva making me dinner, and practically everyone in my family calling birthdays don’t seem all that much different than normal days. Not that I’m complaining about any of the above activities, I’m just saying it’s not like when I was a kid and anticipating my birthday was done with a level of excitement akin to that at which I accepted the job I was offered last week.

Ha. See how I casually slipped that in there? You want details now I suppose?

It all started at midnight. The witching hour. O-Dark-O’Clock. The time when normal people are snug in their beds, visions of the crap they have to do the next day dancing in their heads. Me. I’m chilling on the couch since I have been unceremoniously kicked out of the office so Treva can finish “the project.”

The project it seems is a treasure hunt. I am offered a choice however. I can participate in the hunt or wait until 2:31 PM. The time, in this timezone, at which I was born. Not being one to wait for 14 hours for no good reason I opt for option A.

After hunting around the house I have found the following items from my wonderful wife:

A t-shirt that in SQL basically says the entire world is clueless
“SELECT * FROM Users WHERE clue>0”
“0 Rows returned”.

A new earphone for my radio gear. It’s pretty cool. It still allows you to hear ambient noise. Plus it’s clear and clandestine looking.

A keychain with flashlight, red blinking beacon, alarm, window punch, and seat belt cutter. Let me tell you, that alarm is pretty loud. Treva desperately wants to find out how the window punch works, but isn’t willing to break a glass to figure it out.

A Braille Suduku/Rubix cube

A 5 gigabyte flash drive which I have already equipped with mobile applications including OpenOffice and XAMPP (a portable web server)

[Edit: dinner rocked. I will say that not knowing the filets were wrapped in bacon seriously goofed up my cooking times. Oops. Next time I’m sticking with the serloin.]

The rest of the evening was all kinds of fun. I ran out after dinner for a few minutes with Tony and Rett and picked up a For Sale By Owner sign for the house. When we got back I helped finish the dishes and then we watched Blades of Glory.

Blades of Glory. What can I say. It was… insane. When I first started watching it I thought it was going to end up being Nepolion Dinomite meets Dodgeball meets Highschool Musical. Turns out I was pretty much right. I told Treva it was, at the same time, hilarious, stupid, and incomprehensibly bizarre. I’m still working out whether I’d recommend it to others. If you have two hours of your life you don’t care about ever getting back and want to laugh at “men humor” then this movie is for you.

So, about the job…

*** Flashback ***
Previously on Niner and Associates: Niner was headed to Baltimore for a job interview.

Tuesday the 11th I flew out to Baltimore. Indy wasn’t all that busy and BWI was an absolute ghost town. I was talking to one of the security guards at BWI who said the day before was like a holiday, but almost no one was flying on the 11th. I gotta say if we don’t fly that day, they win. I’m all for remembering the tragedy, because it certainly qualifies as one, but using that as a reason not to fly seemes pointless.

I feel the need to interject one of the lighter moments of the day. I was getting ready to walk through the metal detector and had the following conversation with a TSA employee:

TSA Employee: Sir, I need your shoes.
Me: (removing my shoes and putting them in the bin with my laptop, cell phone, and wallett) No problem.
TE: What kind of belt is that?
Me: (Rearranging my not insignificant ponch so he can see it) Hmm?
TE: You’d better take that off too… and the jacket.
Me: (shrugging) Okay. I just want to say that I have no problem doing this in the name of security, but if you ask for my pants we’re going to have problems…

I spent Tuesday evening with one of the gentlemen from the department I was interviewing with. We had a nice dinner at a local place that was having a killer special on steak. You can’t beat $10.99 for a NY Strip.

Wednesday morning started off in a bit of a panic. I had to reemboss the 3 copies of my resume that I was asked to bring sinceI discovered a horrible formatting error which, if discovered, would have made me look pretty incompetant.

After that, things got better, though not necessarily in the nerve department.

I had 4 meetings that day. One with two people from the department I was interviewing with, one with the head of the Institute that department is under, one with HR, and the final one was with the head of the organization. I have to say the first and last meetings were the most intimidating for me. The first because I was told to, “teach us something,” and the final because I am always intimidated when I meet with this individual.

It turned out really well. I was offered a position and after talking it over with Treva I accepted it.

I will be working for the National Federation of the Blind in the International Braille and Technology Center. This is absolutely one of my dream jobs and I’m so greatful to have the opportunity. It’s going to be a challenge though. Moving across the country, making new friends (we have some out there already which will help a ton) and Treva trying to figure out what she wants to do now. I just keep praying that I’m reading the signs right and we’re heading in the direction God wants us to be heading.

Thursday I flew back to Indiana via Chicago where I spent a fun afternoon with our friend Ronza. We hit up the Cheesecake factory for lunch, did some shopping, and caught part of a random concert in front of the Federal Plaza to celebrate some german restaurant that closed (I don’t really know what the festival was for, someone mentioned October Fest, but I garentee the smell in the air was not sour crout.) before I had to catch my train for the trip to Elkhart.

We spent the weekend with Treva’s family and had a good time. The focus was taken off our moving by other family antics. I’m kind of greatful for that.
*** End Flashback ***

That’s basically the story. I am super excited about the new adventure in our lives. I keep praying for God’s guidance and wisdom in all our decisions though, especially what to do about the house. I’ve got one possible interested party and it would be really sweet if that pans out, but if anyone knows anyone looking for a wheelchair accessible, 3 bedroom house in the Richmond area let me know.

I’ve really got to update more than monthly. These posts keep turning into mini novels.

On the off chance that anyone is still reading my blog, I thought I should check-in and tell y’all what’s been happening.

So, work is… work. Pretty much the same garbage, different day. Our boss is completely obsessed with the upcoming strategic planning “event” in September and honestly most of us could not find it in us to care less. It isn’t that planning for the future isn’t important, but when current operations are messed up and we’re having to scramble to keep our heads above water it becomes difficult to not want to get out of the current situation before figuring out what we can do 2-3 years down the road.

On the bright side of work related things I have an interview next month for a job in Baltimore. It’s something I’ve been looking at for a long time and really wanting to do. Next to working in public safety it’s on the top of my list. It would be working with blindness technology and new products and stuff along those lines. More details later if things pan out, but prayers now would really be appreciated. Treva is a little, uh okay a lot, freaked out about moving across the country. If it’s God’s will it will all work out. I’m flying out the 11th and I guess the interview will take most of the day on the 12th.

Let’s see. What else has been going on?

We were on local AM radio the other morning. We talked about the Center we work at and it was kind of cool. I recorded it for posterity sake if anyone is incredibly bored and wants to listen to it :-). I was going to throw it up and call it a Podcast bonus episode, but I figured it really was not that exciting.

Speaking of podcasts, we got a new one up last night. It’s over at tntpodblast.com.

I bought a new toy yesterday too. I finally broke down and bought a Uniden BCD-396T digital scanner. I can actually listen to the new state digital system and other trunked systems when I travel. I had to order it from Milwaukee because the store in Hamilton was out, but it should be here by Wednesday. I hate waiting. 🙂 In the meantime I’m playing around with one of the software packages for programming the thing and learning the new concept of how Uniden’s Dynamic Memory works.

Instead of the way a “traditional” scanner works, where you can store X number of frequencies in y number of banks, Uniden has devised a more logical method of Systems and Groups that more closely mirrors the way radios are used. A system contains groups. In a Conventional system groups hold frequencies. In a Trunked system the system itself holds the frequencies, but groups hold the different talkgroups. So, for example, I have a Conventional system programmed for our local area. There are 5 different groups. Law Enforcement, Fire/EMS/EMA, Municipal Services, Amateur Radio, and Business. It gets a little more complex when you try to program a multi-site trunked system like we have in Indiana. I’ll spare you the technical details, because I’m guessing I’ve made at least a few of your eyes glaze over already, but this type of Trunked system works quite similarly to a cellular telephone network. Each radio can affiliate with one or more towers and unless a tower has a radio affiliated with a specific talkgroup it will not push that talkgroup out on itself. A talkgroup is basically like a channel in a “normal” system. The basic problem in programming one of these systems is which tower sites to program and how to do it. Option A is to put all the control channels into one system and whichever the scanner locks onto first that’s the tower you will hear traffic from. Option B is to create different systems for every control channel. This way, you can hear traffic from multiple towers. The downside to Option B is that it takes up more space in the scanner’s memory. The downside to Option A is that if you can actually pick up more than one tower it won’t scan them both because it stops on the first control channel it finds. I’m starting with Option A because I don’t think I can hear many control channels from here. In playing around with a different radio I was only able to hear one of the two towers in my county. Basically, what the whole affiliation thing boils down to is who you can hear and where. If, for example, an ISP unit is affiliated with the Henry county tower and I can’t hear the henry county control channel, I won’t hear that unit unless another ISP unit, in the same talkgroup, is affiliated with a tower I can pick up. This doesn’t affect dispatch since they are connected via wireline at the console to the Zone Controller and don’t really care about the towers. We’ll see how this all works when I actually get my hands on the radio.

Right. Enough of the boring stuff. That’s about all that’s been going on. Now it’s time for work. 🙂